Obama defends reports of spying on internet and phone data

Tim Summers, partner at Silicon Roundabout based law firm, Temple Bright, said that the revelations have huge consequences.

“For businesses large and small, this also has repercussions,” he told Channel 4 News. “Firms have grown accustomed to conducting business and storing confidential information online, but this is something that many companies will be minded to revisit if the world’s leading tech companies are colluding with the state.

“Businesses need to be transparent, but they are also obliged by law (and entitled to expect) that private or commercially sensitive dealings remain private and aren’t vulnerable to covert state intrusion.

“As such, we must have mechanisms to ensure that governments can be called to account, to ensure that their legal powers are used only for their proper purposes – such as counter-terrorism – and do not extend into other areas.”

This is an extract of an article which appeared on the Channel 4 News website on 7 June 2013.